VIENNA SYMPHONY A TRIUMPH OF VIRTUOSITY AND SENSITIVITY

Howard ReichCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Virtuoso orchestras each have their own allure, but few can rival the sonic beauty of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which turned in an exquisitely refined and persuasive performance Friday evening in Orchestra Hall.

Opening the Allied Arts Orchestra Series, the Vienna Symphony stands as one of two great Viennese orchestras--the other being the Vienna Philharmonic. Each group has its own musical identity (the Philharmonic accompanies the State Opera, while the Symphony is strictly a concert ensemble) and its own virtues. Judging by its remarkable performance, the Vienna Symphony excels at bringing full-bodied lyricism and considerable drama to scores of the Germanic tradition.

It triumphs in this music, in large part, because of its string sections, which sound distinct from those of any American orchestra that comes to mind. The violins have a sweetness of timbre and fluidity of phrase that enables melodic lines to carry utmost emotional impact. The cellos and basses play with a richness of tone and depth of attack that roundly supports the orchestra in even the loudest passages.

The other sections also measure to high rank, giving the Vienna Symphony the enviable but elusive combination of technical virtuosity and exceptional lyric sensitivity.

Thus it was no surprise that the orchestra was at its most powerful in Richard Strauss` tone poem ''Ein Heldenleben'' (''A Hero`s Life''), an epic that tells its story in brilliant colors, complex orchestration and grandly arched melodies. Under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch, who was the orchestra`s chief conductor during the `60s and is now leading its fifth North American tour, the Vienna Symphony created great drama without tipping toward bombast.

Sawallisch shaped the score carefully, building from a sober statement of the opening heroic theme to a quietly touching reading of the central love theme to a battle scene that crackled with precision playing and resonant fortissimos. Never overdone or sentimental, this reading showed the work`s durability as well as Sawallisch`s ability to control massive orchestral forces.

Sawallisch provided an apt orchestral accompaniment to Christian Altenburger`s robust reading of Mozart`s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216. Though Altenburger played with an unabashedly rich tone and full sense of nuance, he never transgressed bounds of period style. His performance was designed to underscore lyric ideas, and given the Italianate nature of the concerto`s expansive melodic lines, the approach was perfectly appropriate.

Likewise in Mozart`s ''Jupiter'' Symphony, No. 41, the orchestra imbued every line with a singing tone, rich colors and a trace of wistfulness befitting Mozart`s last and grandest symphony.